MACON, Ga. — Central Georgia's Court Appointed Special Advocates help connects foster kids with loving families.
It is focused on identifying the children's specific needs to the best of their abilities, Susanna Patterson, the executive director of Central Georgia's CASA, said.
CASA is in need of volunteers, because it is only has enough people to serve about half of the community it reaches in Peach, Bibb, and Crawford counties.
Lisa Lebron is one of CASA's volunteers. Her goal is to help kids in any way she can.
"It's not their fault that at all that they're in the conditions they're in, and I want to tell them, you can survive this with some love," Lebron said.
She said she wants these kids to succeed when they grow up. In order for CASA to best serve the needs of the children, she said more volunteers could help.
"Some of us have 10 cases, that's spreading ourselves quite thinly, and I think if we can go down to each of us handling a household, I think we can be advocates for doing that," she said.
An important component for the children is connecting with them individually. She said figuring out a child's interests helps build trust.
Volunteers meet with foster parents, teachers, counselors, family members and other people in the child's lives to assess their needs the best they can, Patterson said.
Patterson said the best part of her job is watching families heal.
"When families are able to reunify, it happens because there has been healing generationally," she said. "That is a wonderful thing to watch and see because that ultimately leads to transformation in our larger community."
She said having more volunteers can ensure positive things for the children.
"By having a CASA volunteer, we can help ensure that they do better in school by ensuring that they get the services they need," she said. "We can help minimize placement changes, and we can help ensure that they reach that permanency before they reach 18 and that can break statistical cycles that lead to these really poor outcomes for kids in foster care."
More volunteers means more care for the kids.
For those interested in volunteering, there is an in-person training session at the building on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.